back on schedule... sort of

If you know me well enough, you know that I never stick to a certain exercise program or training schedule. When training for a half marathon, I try to stick as much to the training plan as possible... however, with a baby, a full time job, and all other things considered, it's hard to keep that schedule. Since we have lived in Ohio, I have been trying to get back into the rhythm of working out. Here's how it went.

1. Running every day while staying at the Homewood Suites 
2. Jillian Micheal's 30 Shred - I did about a week of this but not in a row. I suck. It's 30 minutes each day and I'm STILL too lazy to do it.. pathetic.
3. Run/Walk each morning with Cami and Chloe - Now this is what I'm trying to improve on!! I'm actually doing good at this one.

We have been running each morning right after I give her breakfast if the weather permits. We used to just walk with Chloe but recently I have been running with Cami in her jogging stroller. It took me a while to figure out how to change my running form to accommodate the stroller, but I'm getting better every day!

As mentioned in the previous post, Dan has been working really hard from the hours of 8-5 in order to have family time when he gets home from school. So each night, I try to have dinner ready by 5:45 or 6 and then we have the rest of the night (until 8) to spend with Cami. The last couple of nights, we have been going for a run with Cami. It's easier to run with Dan because he is a pro at pushing the stroller so I get to run like normal. YAY!

Well last night was the first time I ran 3 miles without stopping! It's a major set-back from where I orginally started running in 2008, but it's a start! And I have to remember that. I am getting back in the groove of running and actually prefer to run than walk now.

With that being said, I am so glad I have the time to do these things (read: so glad I'm not working). I have more time for me to do what I need/want to do! I'm enjoying our daily runs and hope that they can continue!

Until next time... :)

oops.

well.. well...

we meet again after months. OOPS! Well, in my defense, we've been a little busy!

Let's recap:
1. Quit my job on July 13th (i think i posted about this already)
2. Packed up the ENTIRE house in about a week and a half
3. Helped pack the moving truck/semi trailer
4. Moved to Ohio (insert sad face..I miss Georgia)
5. Lived "homeless" in the Homewood Suites for 8 days
6. Looked at a million houses for rent before finding the "one"
7. Unpacked entire moving truck, with Dan, in one afternoon
8. Unpacked  Still unpacking house
9. Took care of Cami
10. Relaxed.

WHEW. Can you blame me for being away for so long? There is no real news to report as we are all doing pretty good. Dan is VERY busy with school getting 32/100 on his math tests studying and so on. So it's basically like we are roommates! Although now that he has decreased his coursework, he is able to go to "work" at 8ish and get some schoolwork done. Now we have most of our evenings to ourselves! YAY.

Cami has been adjusting well. I made sure to set up her room FIRST thing once we moved in. I wanted her to have a sense of normalcy so I tried to set up her room as close to her old room as possible. Now our house is significantly smaller than our last, but we are making it work. Luckily all of her furniture fits in her room so I don't have to worry about that. She is still not walking. I thought she would be by now... but in time she will get it. She is starting to stand on her own without support but it's only for a few seconds and then she realizes she is standing and freaks out. I want her to walk SIMPLY because she wants to be upright. She requires a lot of help right now with that because all she wants to do is walk around the house all day. But that's just not in my plan most days (and not to mention it KILLS my back). She has sprouted her upper tooth on the left and the right is on it's way down now. She has been sleeping well with little to no middle of the night disturbances (which were teething related anyway).

I am VERY much enjoying being home with her. It's going to be quite sad when I go back to work. I have two jobs I am considering right now and I just got my Ohio license!  WHOOP WHOOP! took forever in a day to get it!

Well I have so much more to update on, but I'm le tired. So until next time... :)

Bad News

It has been a whirlwind of a month... filled with bad news!

Let me start by saying it is related to our moving situation, NOT Cami Lou. Although we have had our ups and downs with her as well.

Originally we were going to move to Dayton, Ohio on August 8th. I finished work on Friday the 13th (eeeek) and I am officially unempolyed! :) Well with some recent revelations, it seems that we will be leaving on August 1st. Dan found out that he had to take his 10 TDY days to look for housing BEFORE he out-processed here at Robins. Which means we have to go look for a house before we plan to move. That made things a bit complicated because we didn't plan on that. In addition to that news, when we called to set up our movers, they said they couldn't come until September! Are you )#&(&#(*^ kidding me! I had planned on living without our major furniture for about a month, NOT 2. So now we have to do a full ditty to flippin' ohio!!!

As you can tell, I'm less than thrilled about this. I was planning on being stress-free during this move since I would just be telling people what to do. But instead, I have to pack this entire house while I'm off work (except the furniture). Thankfully Cami is at daycare still!

We are going to start packing today and try to get as much done as we can until the last weekend in July. Then plan to leave on August 1st. Annoying.

Cami is doing well I guess. She went through a teething phase (which resulted in no new teeth) and refused to eat from a bottle and we had to spoon feed her her formula. Never again!!! That was just... crazy. But I'm happy to report she is over her formula revolt and it's eating like a pig. We are trying to give her people food (haha, like a dog!) in small pieces but being the speech therapist that I am, I am freaking out and worried that she will aspirate! LOL only I would act like that! She does get puffs (like cheerios) and Mum-Mums, but that's about it for whole solid foods. Hopefully once she gets a few more teeth I can give her more chunks of food and less puree. I'm so over making and pureeing her food, I"m just ready to cut up what we eat and give that to her!

We will be crazy busy the next few weeks, so if I am not able to blog, don't think I am given up! I will be back once we are settled and all moved in, in OHIO! :)

Until next time ... :)

blah...

blah.. it's how I feel lately. I have started P90X...again... and it's going okay. It's a LOT different when you have a child and really don't have the time to work out. I've been lucky enough to get off around 3:45 or 4:00 from work so I can come home and get my hour workout in before Cami gets home. Because let me tell you, ALL I want to do when I get home is play with that little Cami Lou.

Losing weight has been challenging... I don't really have the time to work out like I want to and eating healthy is a challenge as well. I'm still eating like I am pregnant! I should NOT have this baby weight STILL.. so it's hard. But I can say that it's my own fault.. mainly related to diet and lack of consistent exercise...
So, along with some of my coworkers (who in my opinion are beautiful and don't need to lose weight ) I am doing the special K diet. I figured it would give me a kick-start to my weight loss and hopefully if I can get some initial pounds off, it will motivate me to work out harder and eat healthier.

Like most Americans, I just eat too much and I like dessert and Coke! LOL. But I have been good about only having a soda 1-2 times per week. But I still have that need for a dessert after every meal, even breakfast! But I'm hoping to replace unhealthy desserts with something like sliced fruit with fat free cool whip.. we'll see.

I will let you all know about P90X and the Special K diet and how I am doing with it. Day 1 is today and so far I've had a protein drink and some coffee (fat free half and half and a little sugar). As for P90X, I am on week 6. Progress is slow but that's because I'm not consistent! :(

Until next time! [and hopefully out of this funk]

5-6 months!

These 2 months were filled with milestones!

First and MOST important: Cami learned to sleep through the night. Until she was about 5 1/2 months old, she was still eating at least once through the night. As I said in my last post, I bought the book "Solve Your Child's Sleep Problems" and it taught us how to wean her from her night feeding as well as teach her how to fall asleep on her own. Well, lucky for us, she weaned herself from her feeding. Just one night, she decided she didn't need it. So one step down, one to go. Next we did the "Cry it out" method. There are a lot of people against it, but I'm against waking up multiple times throughout the night! SO there! But really, it was a breeze! She got it within two nights. Now the first night was not the best, but we make it through. The second night was SOOO much better and after that, she's been sleeping! 11 hours of pure sleeping bliss!!! YAY! If I had to give advice, I would say do the program!! It saved me (and my marriage!)

Speaking of that, since I"m being truthful, it has been difficult. It seems that we have been fighting ever since we had Cami. We really haven't... but it's hard when both parents are sleep deprived and you have a slightly needy baby. All those things combined, along with general day-to-day stresses, makes for a difficult time! But we have learned to communicate our feelings instead of walking away or being silent. I am hoping that this will only make our marriage stronger! I'd like to hope that other couples feel this way when they first have a baby... but I can only speak for us.

Another important milestone: Cami is crawling!!!! Cami is officially doing hands and knees crawling as of last week! We went on vacation (more on that in the next post) and she picked that up somehow! We knew she was close anyway.

Cami is also eating 3 times per day as of 6 months. She generally loves food. Except squash. She is definitely allergic!!! She is enjoying trying new things and we are getting ready to introduce homemade protein (chicken and turkey, most likely) and we are excited!!

When we went home for the Flying Pig Marathon, our amazing photographer, Ashley Esterle, took her [early] 6 month pictures.. they are simply adorable. Here are a few:

Cutie pie!! Until next time... :)

4-5 months

Well boy you sure do get busy once you have a child. Whew. I just happened to check on my blog and realized I haven't updated since March! I'm a slacker!

Things have been pretty busy and exciting in our household. Many sleepless nights, teething, illness, and of course, fond memories with little miss Cami Lou.

4 Months: Cami was still rolling around all over the place at this time. We started solids on exactly 4/20/12. It was a rough few weeks at first. She really hated the rice cereal and I researched for ever and ever about it. I was convinced she wasn't ready for solids yet but didn't want to start a fruit because of the old wives tale. If you start them on a fruit then they will never eat vegetables. So I took to the internet to find out if this statement was true or not. And I was actually surprised to find out that it didn't matter one way or another! Breast milk is pretty sweet itself so they are already used to the sweetness. So I decided to try bananas. I used my finger because I wasn't entirely sure she liked the spoon. She ate ALMOST the entire jar!!! I was so happy! Then a few days later she got sick and constipated. We had to call the doctor and his nurse chewed my head off for giving her fruit instead of a green vegetable. Whatev lady. Long story short, she never (and still to this day) liked rice cereal. So we skipped that part. We still put it in her bottle every night, but she doesn't eat it from a spoon. We also started solid feedings at daycare too and they said she was doing great!

5 Months: She had her first visit to Disney World about 4 1/2 months! She loved it! We had a good time and she did very well! She was STILL (repeat STILL) not sleeping through the night at this point. Remember that hole I talked about in my last post? Yeah, we were pretty deep in it! I finally bought the book "Solve your child's sleep problems." It was a good book and I learned a lot about why she wasn't sleeping through the night and what we were going to do about it... but more on that later. Other than introducing some more solid foods (sweet potatoes and peas), this month was eventful for our first ear infection, multiple issues with a fever, and she sat up alone!!!! YAY CAMI!!! 4/29/12. Such a big girl!

I started making our own food for Cami. It's actually very simple and I feel like such a good mom for some reason. I just feel so accomplished when she eats the food I make. And boy does she eat!!!! Although she is still not yet 15lbs! :)

More next time! 

2-4 months.

Well time sure does fly! And boy are we busy! Me especially since I went back to work. It's been quite the adjustment, but each day is a little better.

I started back at work on Jan 30th. It was very hard that first week, but like I said, it's getting better. I am working full time (although I wish it was less) and Cami is in daycare. She likes it so far and only has had a few bad days. Usually they have to call us. Dan has only been in there once to feed her because she just flat out refused all day. So Dan took a little field trip and fed her! So glad he can be nearby! I like that she is going to daycare but essentially we are paying someone else to raise our daughter. That's how I see it, anyway. I wish I was home with her, but the cards didn't fall that way.

2 Months: Let's see... Cami started sleeping through the night around 2 months. But don't worry, that lovely joy came quickly to an end. She was not and is still not on a schedule for sleeping or eating. She was eating every 2 hours still about 3-4 oz. She had her doctor's appointment on Jan 24th. She got 3 shots and some nasty medicine in her mouth. I thought she was going to stop breathing with her first shots. Her face was turning purple she was so mad! Dan couldn't be there so it was difficult on me. But she did okay and we survived! Daycare sends home a sheet with her feeds and naps everyday so it's helpful to determine a trend of eating and sleeping times. But we sort of figured out that they aren't always that accurate. But they are helpful, I guess.

3 Months: Cami kept sleeping through the night until Feb 16th.Why do I remember this date, you ask? Because   I have looked it up numerous times because she still hasn't slept through the night since then. Bummer. HUGE bummer. But on the bright side, this month she learned how to roll herself over!!! :) As I type this, she is rolling all over the floor on her mat. Back and forth and back and forth. It's pretty cute.

We are stumped as to why she is not sleeping through the night anymore. She was waking up 1-2 times and I researched it and it seemed like a growth spurt. However, a month later, she is still waking up. So unless this is the longest growth spurt in history, we have dug ourselves a hole. I think she has gotten into a pattern of waking up knowing that we will feed her. However, if we don't feed her, it's impossible to put her back to bed. Dan is against the "cry it out" method and I'm all for it, if it teaches her to sleep thru the night again.
Then there's the fact that she is sucking down a bottle at 4am every night like she is starved. So recently we started adding cereal to her bottle at night. It's only a tsp for 5oz of milk so it's really not that much. It's helped so that she only wakes up once (she was waking up multiple times) but still not keeping her asleep all night. We have not tried any more solids and are waiting to see what the doctor has to say on Tuesday. I hope he'll give us the okay. I feel like if she had a little more on her ribs she would sleep. But probably not knowing her!

It's certainly been a challenge since my last post, which is probably why I haven't updated. I am always dead tired and barely making it to ten o'clock. It's been straining on Dan and I because we hardly spend any time together. So we are hoping that once she will start sleeping again, we can stay up a little later and enjoy the time without Cami. This sure is testing us and our relationship, but if Cami wasn't so cute, I would be a bit more mad! :)

Until next time! :)